As computer technology has advanced and computers have become increasingly commonplace in our lives, the creation and sharing of digital content has increased. Situations can arise when creating digital content in which a 3-dimensional (3D) fluid volume is desired, such as to include water, smoke, or other fluids in the digital content. The digital content can include only the 3D fluid, or alternatively other 3D models or 2-dimensional (2D) images or content.
While including a 3D fluid in digital content is desirable in some situations, it is not without its problem. One such problem is that creating a 3D fluid volume typically involves setting up a physically based simulation for fluid. Such simulations can take a long time to run (e.g., on the order of hours to days). Furthermore, such simulations often involve a trial-and-error approach requiring changes to the initial state of the fluid and/or the simulation parameters each time the simulation is run. Additionally, such simulations often require some 3D modeling program experience on the part of the user to set up the simulation system. These problems make it difficult for users to add a 3D fluid volume to their digital content, leading to user frustration with their computers.